For the last installment of plum week (or is it three weeks now?), we have the easiest possible thing to make: a drink.

Just as the plums were at the top of their game, our next-door neighbor brought us a grocery bag full of oranges from her tree. On the one hand, great! Double fruit harvest! On the other hand, we suddenly had twice as much fruit to eat before it all went bad.

The obvious solution was to combine them. Thus, plum orangeade was born.

This simple blender drink is sweet and refreshing. It's excellent served over ice all by itself, but you can also add a shot of vodka or rum, or just make a simple sparkler with half juice and half sparkling water.

The texture of the finished product is up to you. I don't mind pulpy juice, so I just threw my oranges into the blender in big pieces. If you are a non-pulp person, you will probably want to juice your oranges instead. To get two cups of juice, you may need a third orange.

As you can see, the orangeade is pretty foamy right out of the blender. If you like, you can always pass it through a sieve to eliminate the fragments of plum skin and other fibrous bits. I just left mine as-is and drank it. Why throw out any of the fruit? It's all good.

Makes approximately 6 cups.


Plum orangeade

2 cups plums, pitted and quartered
2 oranges, peeled and quartered
1-2 cups water, depending on the juiciness of your fruit
simple syrup to taste

Liquefy your plums, oranges, and water in your blender. Taste the resulting orangeade and decide if you want to add any simple syrup. My fruit made a perfectly sweet orangeade all by itself, but if you have less sweet fruit, you can always adjust.

Drink over ice, with or without the added alcohol of your choice. Super refreshing!

What are you drinking to beat the heat this summer?